Putting Millions of Facebook and Google Dollars in Scientists’ Pockets Might Do You Some Good

What would you do with $3 million, no strings attached? Eleven scientists are asking themselves that very question after winning the Breakthrough Prize, the newest and fattest cash prize currently awarded to researchers studying biological sciences. The Prize was cooked up by entrepreneur Yuri Milner and two of Silicon Valley’s most powerful couples — Google’s Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan.

The prize money comes without restriction on how it can be spent. Which begs the question: will the scientists use it to fund research; sponsor young scientists; launch startups; or book a reservation for a trip to space?

“It’s such a large amount of money, that I think scientists will try to think of something good to do with it,” Dr. Eric Lander, one of the winners, told Wired. “It would encourage scientists to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. It’s kind of nice.” Lander, the director of MIT’s Broad Institute who won for discovering methods used to identify genes involved in human disease, doesn’t see the winners buying flashy Ferraris, though paying off mortgages might be high on the priority list for some.

Lander, who was one of the leaders of the Human Genome Project, is using part of his new fortune to develop an online introductory biology course through EdX, an interactive web-based educational platform that currently offers free courses taught by Harvard, MIT and Berkeley professors. He’s partnered with the National Science Teachers Association and Teach for America to help his team work out the kinks. Science teachers will take the course, which starts in March, attend webinars and later some would even be flown to Boston to discuss how the course could be improved.

“It’s really important for scientists to be engaged with science teachers at the K-12 levels,” Lander said. He’s already getting started: yesterday he hosted a Reddit AMA that generated more than 1,200 comments and he’s been previously spotted dancing MIT Gangnam Style.

Cori Bargmann, another winner and a neuroscientist at The Rockefeller University who studies how genes and the environment affect the nervous system, was considering using her loot to “promote conservation in the developing world,” according to ScienceInsider.

Already, some have criticized the awards for giving money to established researchers in fields that draw in plenty of research dollars. (Some of these sentiments came out during Lander’s AMA.)

“We’re rewarding a small coterie of people when the foundation is crumbling underneath,” said Stuart Firestein, a neurobiologist at Columbia University. The proliferation of these large prizes could also change the motivations of young people to go into science. The solution, he stresses, isn’t to do away with awards, but to change the funding structure.

The MIT Technology Review also had some critiques, calling the the winners “the scientific advisory board of Cure for Cancer, Inc.” because a majority of them do research on cancer genetics. That article also drew attention to Lander’s large salary and his founding of startups like Verastem, which is focused on developing cancer drugs, and Foundation Medicine, which is using genetics to develop a personalized approach to treating cancer. Verastem’s other co-founder is Robert Weinberg, another Breakthrough winner, and Foundation Medicine was recently funded by Milner.

So now it’s up to the 11 winners to ease these concerns. The inaugural winners, or laureates (can you really fault the endless media comparisons to the Nobel prize?) as they’re called on the award’s website, were chosen by Milner and Apple and Genentech Chairman Art Levinson. But soon anyone will be able to submit nominations for the next round of laureates online, from which Lander, Bargmann and their colleagues will choose next year’s five recipients. What the current laureates end up doing with their suddenly (even) deeper pockets will also be important. They have the opportunity to set a high charitable bar for the next class of Breakthrough winners and to pass the outreach torch to budding researchers in underfunded but important fields who can relate to a new generation of scientists.

“I’d love to see them do great things…But by the time the government get through with [the money], it’s going to be a lot less than $3 million. How much philanthropy does that get you?” said Firestein. “I don’t know.”

But Lander is optimistic. It’s in scientists’ natural instinct to “make the world better in some way,” he said. “It would not surprise me that many of the recipients will think in those terms.”

Update: After deadline, Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, who won for his work on stem cells, wrote in an email to Wired that “Regarding the prize money I have received, not only this one but also those from other awards, I would like to use part of it to support our institute, CiRA (Center for iPS Cell Research and Application) to make [it] one of the best working places for young researchers.”

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